Indentifaction Help Required

[macman]

This is the first bullet I need help with it is said to have been collected from the site of the battle of Williamsburg, May 5 1862. The details are as follows, approx 1'/25mm high, 1/2"/14mm wide and 1.2 oz in weight.

[PCGeorge]

The specimen is a fired one, making 100%-certain identification more difficult to ascertain. In your photo, I cannot see any body-grooves encircling the minie's cylindrical portion, so, your specimen appears to be a .577-caliber British-made Enfield minie-ball.

The circular groove around this specimen's top is an imprint made by the rifle's ramrod during loading. The rifle barrel's bore was "dirty" from the build-up of powder ash, due to repeated firing without cleaning. That ash-buildup caused the soldier to have to use much more than the normal amount of force to "ram" the minie down the rifle's barrel. (Most fired minies do not show a ramrod-mark.)

This variety of .577 Enfield minie appears to have what we civil war bullet collectors call a "plug" cavity. That means it was made in Britain, and imported to America by either the USA or CSA. Though some diggers and "beginner" collectors think Enfield minies are strictly Confederate-used, in reality the yankees used a great many of them. That having been said, your specimen having been excavated in Williamsburg VA means it was most likely fired by a Confederate soldier.

I seem to see some rifling-groove marks going down the side of your specimen. If there are four rifling-groove marks, it was fired from a .577-caliber Enfield rifle. If there are only three, it was fired from a .58-caliber yankee Springfield rifle.

Regards,
Pete [P.C. George]

[macman]

Hi Pete, thank you much very much indeed for your posts, they are all very educational. As you may deduce we are complete beginners at this. I take your point about the rifle grooves on the Enfield mini ball, there are three grooves, approx 5/16" wide spaced around the circumference, so by your reasoning we would deduce that it is was fired from a .58 Springfield, I know this may sound stupid, but would the correct indentifaction now be a .58 Springfield minie-ball or does it still remain an Enfield minie-ball, but just fired from a .58 Springfield ?

[PCGeorge]

Macman wrote:
> Hi Pete, thank you much very much indeed for your posts, they are all very educational.
> As you may deduce we are complete beginners at this.

You're welcome. Waaay back in 1974, I bought my first "real" metal detector and started digging and collecting civil war relics ...especially small-arms & artillery projectiles. Fortunately, a couple of the experts who were alive back then very generously gave me their time and freely shared their knowledge. I would not be where I am today if they had instead said "Go away kid, don't bother me." Now that I'm one of the Oldtimers myself, I choose to "pass those favors onward."

Much knowledge also can be gained from various relic reference-books that were written by relic-diggers & collectors. Two of the best on bulets are:
"Civil War Projectiles II, Small Arms and Field Artillery" by W. Reid McKee aand M.E. Mason Jr. (available from many relic-dealers on the Internet)
"A Handbook of Civil War Bullets & Cartridges" by James E. Thomas and Dean S. Thomas (available at Thomas Publications Online)

Sidenote:
The McKee-&-Mason book is quite extensive ...but it was written back iin the 1960s, with only a small update since then. Thus, it contains a significant number of Bullet-ID errors. The inexpensive Thomas-&-Thomas handbook corrects those ID errors.

> I take your point about the rifle grooves on the Enfield mini ball, there are three grooves, approx 5/16" wide spaced around
> the circumference, so by your reasoning we would deduce that it is was fired from a .58 Springfield,

Your measurements of the number and size of the rifling-groove marks on the bullet confirm that it was indeed fired from a Springfield rifle.

> I know this may sound stupid, but [...]

No. We all start as "uneducated" beginners, and the best way to learn is to ask such questions as you asked. Please do NOT feel stupid in doing so. And, do NOT let anybody make you feel stupid for asking. If somebody tries to do that to you, you're talking to the wrong kind of person.

> [...] would the correct indentifaction now be a .58 Springfield minie-ball or does it still remain
> an Enfield minie-ball, but just fired from a .58 Springfield ?

It remains an Enfield minie-ball. Civil war bullets (and artillery projectiles, and firearms, etc.) are named for their Inventor. (Example: Burnside bullet.) If the specific Inventor's name is not known, the relic may alternatively be named for its producer/manufacturer. (Examples: the minie-ball designed at the Enfield Arsenal in England ...and the US's Springfield rifle.)

A sidenote on correctly interpreting the rifling-marks on fired Small Arms projectiles:
The McKee-&-Mason book contains an extensive list (including diagrams) of the number and shape of rifling-grooves in civil war rifles, muskets, carbines, and pistols. Go to pages 168 & 169 in that book. For example, I find it interesting to learn that my "generic" .69-caliber yankee 3-groove minie was fired from an imported Belgian rifle. (Being caught "unprepared" for war in 1861, both the USA and CSA imported vast quantities of firearms from Europe at that time -- which is why a lot of Enfield minies come from early-war sites occupied by yankee troops.) But at Williamsburg VA, the yanks do not seem to have been using Enfield ammo ...so your Enfield minie was most likely fired by a Confederate soldier using a captured yankee's Springfield rifle. You see how interesting doing the Research on your relics can be.

Regards,
Pete [P.C. George]

[TnCobra]

Look real close inside the bottom for .57 cast in it.